With so much top music coming out of France, they’ve become a leading label in a short time. Nigel Photon asked label-head Manu to explain the secrets of his va va voom

How did you get into psytrance?
I discovered trance in 1992, during the first Underground Rave parties in France, before the sticker of “Goa trance” arrived in Europe. I started to mix UK and German Trance. I became Monolithe records’ label manager in 2000, after meeting Fred Talaa aka Neuromotor. I saw the big potential, French artists had and decided to create Turbo Trance records to produce this new generation of artists. I discovered a lot of fresh French talents (Neuromotor, Psyside, Hyper Frequencies, Silicon Sound, Walhalla, TIT, Triptych). Then I was joined by some international artists like Mumbo Jumbo or Stella Nutella.

What style of music do you like to release on the label and is this going to change?
We are actually more oriented to morning trance than before but we still release night music and of course, music for the dancefloors! What we don’t like is “straight” dark music. We only release positive music to give to the people positive vibes! The most important thing is the groove: “At Turbo Trance, in Groove we trust!!” I don’t think it’s going to change.

You compiled the Transient comp, “NEO”, how would you say this “Neo full-on style” differs to previous styles and who are the best exponents of it for you?
In reality, I discovered recently that more and more artists try to produce a new kind of music mixing all good sides from progressive and full-on trance… Neo full-on style is like a good alchemy between full-on sounds /melodies, and progressive groovy rhythms/tracks constructions. Ok, you will tell me that it’s one more sticker on a music style… and it is ! Most important is the music, not the sticker you put on it…
Artists like Triptych, Protoculture, and Sirius Isness are representative. .style”.

Can psy-trance survive in its present form; does it have to be marketed more commercially and how does this effect label releases?
I don’t think that Psy-Trance has to be marketed more commercially, even if I’m not against that but there are different points to change if we don’t want to say “Adios” to the professional side of this music scene. People working in this scene (labels, artists, promoters, etc) have to be more professional, serious! Then, the most important is that everybody has to understand that trading, copying, downloading music is not good! The selling of all labels is going down 40% and soon 60%. It means that 50% of trance labels will disappear in the next two years.
What are your future plans?
Our clothing label “Turbo Trance Wear”, dedicated to the Cyber and Psychedelic fashion is coming soon and we’ll be developing the label on all continents with new artists and DJs representing us. Regarding releases, next month is a new comp Accelerator 1.0 with four more planned.